C: The Money of Soul and Possibility Control – 03

There’s a good portion focused on the blonde haired American-Japanese entre, Jennifer Satou, of whom we only saw glimpses of last time. From first impressions, I like her character. She seems strong, but is also pretty composed, unlike our main protagonist who gets worked up very easily. A lot of the episode narrated and shown from her point of view as she explains some of the stuff involving the financial district such as the micro, mezzo, macro-flation attacks. She is somewhat of a spy investigating the Tokyo District and Mikuni for the “Organization” (the IMF), and is also following Kimamaro around pretty closely. From what she says, I’m getting the impression that the Financial District like a mirror of the real world finance, with Districts in various financial centers of the world. Mikuni seems to run the place, or at least has a lot of influence in it. He really is still a mysterious big fish though, and I’m also suspecting that there’s something wrong with the Midas money, and it may have some sort of hidden effect.

On another point, the assets are still pretty intriguing this time around. Q and Msyu seem fascinated by each other, and Msyu is curious about the other assets as well. That aspect isn’t explained and the point may be minor, but I still found their reactions to each other to be quirky. I mean what/who are the assets really? They spend most of their time floating around in the little rainbow world of the Midas card. Their whole existence is pretty fascinating as they materialize through the cards easily with just a swipe, they talk through subtitles, and the vision through the hole in the card (and other objects) is also different, like a magic disappearing trick.

As for what Kimimaro is up to, he went to visit his aunt Kyouko in hopes of finding more about his parents. I know he’s still reluctant about the whole deal, and still just wants a normal and stable life. Perhaps his talk with Mikuni had spurred him to find out more more about his father. What he discovers reinforces his wishes, as he finds a link with the Midas Bank. It turns out his dad was an Entre and his greed bit him in the ass when he went bankrupt and lost his future. I don’t know if Mikuni has any personal interest for persuading Kimimaro to stick around in the Financial District, but he does help him out in several ways such as finding a contact who knew his father. Mikuni also helps him realize that his father was actually trying to make money for the family, unlike Mikuni’s own dad. However I still feel that Kimimaro’s new position (the one Masakaki offered) is not explained enough, and he really should do that before he ends up like a certain other antagonist who made shady deals with kids. So far, Mikuni does seem like a good guy and his long talk with Kimimaro would have me convinced, and of course, we’d probably have no story if Kimimaro decided to pull out. In the end though, there’s a twist when he meets someone he knows. This story could still go anywhere.

The guy could’ve lied, considering that Mikuni paid him off beforehand; two possibilities- wither it was money to make him talk, or it was read-between-the-lines money to make him lie about something; all we can do is wait and see…

That’s what I thought too at first — But I don’t see him anywhere when I replayed all 3 episodes just so I can confirm who that guy was. He doesn’t seem to be the friend/classmate who is said to be “in a roll lately”, and he’s also not the teacher we all saw in the first episode.

lol, he’s definitely the teacher. Although he may appear slightly different in episode 1 because his face was shown in another angle, the jacket and black skivvy the guy was wearing in both scenes are the same. http://www.imagedoll.com/out.php/i25257_teacher.jpg

“How long has it been?”

Initially I thought he meant how long has it been since they last saw each other, but watching the scene again, it seems clear he was referring to how long since Kimimaro acquired the power or had access to this world.

Just because you’re a native speaker of English from one region, it doesn’t mean that you can speak like other native speakers from another- like me; I’m a native speaker, but there’s no way in hell I’d ever be able to speak like and Englishman- although we’re both native speakers of English.

In this case it was likely a native English-speaking voice actor who tried to speak in something other than his native accent (Which sounded like an African-American trying to sound Southern White).

If that was indeed a native accent of some sort, I’ve never heard it before- certainly not Jamaican, South African, Australian or anything of the like- Unlikely given that it sounds distinctly African-American…or maybe it’s just a normal Japanese person with an accent modifier program- possible given the intonation of the r’s (I’ve never used one of those before, not sure how they would sound)

In any case I’m still impressed that they actually bothered to put effort into making him sound right.

I won’t write out that father theory too soon, Mikuni seems to know too much and too interested in Kimimaro than he normally should. Unless it’s actually Msyu that he’s really after since she seems to be a quite strong asset.

I’m loving the atmosphere of this show; most things about it seem to be pretty nice- except for for the protagonist who’s gets on my nerves all the time for being such a pussy; MAJOR points off for that…

One part that hasn’t been defined yet is how much you lose when you lose on a deal. Is it all or none or can you lose a deal without going bankrupt. Basically, an entre has to deal every week. That’s 52 deals in a year. If it’s all or nothing, it’s only a matter of time before you go bankrupt.

Another tidbit is that there was the scene that showed world equity indexes. A quick comparison on Bloomberg and the numbers in the anime are roughly equal to what the indexes are at now.

It’s interesting that they’re using the IMF as a type of overseer in monitoring money flows. While the IMF has “international” in its name, it’s more or less an extension of US financial policy. I’d like to see how the anime will portray that body. If they wanted to portray a powerful organization that would be Goldman Sachs.

The “flation” attacks are explained in the ep. However, there are other terms that show up as well. “Scorched earth, EBO, freeze out” are financial terms as well. I did a quick google for “finance scorched earth, etc.” They’re not common in financial literature. But they do have a common relation in that they pertain to mergers and acquisitions. M&A happens to be a type of “deal.” Definitely an interesting angle.

I would agree but cost is not the only way to lose money. You can also lose money if you receive an attack. There would be some interesting scenarios that you can play out once losing is defined but for the time being I won’t speculate.

They have yet to explain the “Direct” attack where you make the money swords. I’m guessing those would be all or nothing attacks with instant bankrupt power because of the risk for the entre themselves.

They also never explain the amount you can use in an attack. Cause during episode two those two were using 100k-5m-10m attack, during that time I know he doesn’t have 10mil in his bank so how come he can use that amount.
So does each attack doesn’t have to be equal to the amount of money you have in the bank? if that the case then why doesn’t everyone just use attack like 1 trillion or something, there has to be some relationship between the amount of money each person has and the amount of attack they can perform, guess I still waiting for the explaination for that in the anime.

THANK YOU!!!! i really cant get into this because i feel like they’re just pulling rules out of their A$$es, and at the same time not explaining ish!!!! it makes it difficulty to find these so called “battle/deal” scenes exciting because you have no sense of whats really at stake,what there collateral is worth, even their situation. which makes me not really care either way. boring so far

Pulling rules out of their asses. Using money that one doesn’t even have. Not too far fetched at all. Sounds exactly like real financial markets. The current notional value of all derivatives in the world is in the hundreds of trillions (using USD as a base). That’s 1 with 14 zeroes behind it. The true net amount is actually much smaller but the whole point is that creating money out of thin air is definitely in the realm of possibility.

I’m having a lot of fun with this show. I want to see someone with the attack of “quantitative easing” with a power of 48 Trillion JPY.

but we were not even shown how much money his future was worth beforehand…

…
…
okay, looking back on ep 2′s numbering, Kimimaro’s original value for his future was “1259″, after the battle, it changed to “3359″. Afterwards, he was surprised to find his Midas account has “33500000″ yen (if you can trust GG’s take on it), which meant that his account had “125000000″, which made most of the attacks doable…

…and I’m sure that everything in that Finacial District uses the same currency as the city its in…

http://randomc.net/image/C/C%20-%2003%20-%20Large%2030.jpg
Did anyone else happen to notice that other character who appears alongside Q? They seemed to be intentionally avoiding showing his/her face (repeatedly, at that), which piques my curiosity even more. Does Mikuni somehow have two assets? Hmm…

Damn, you’re right. I completely forgot about that one. My bad.
But on that note, looking back, the character with Q appears in the first and second episodes as well, also semi-hidden, and always alongside (or behind) Q:http://i120.photobucket.com/albums/o161/rgnrk/screens/anime/c-q.png (from ep.1)
Another aspect of Q’s existence as an asset? The intentional avoidance of showing his/her face is driving me a little nuts, heh. Guess I’ll see in due time, but damn am I curious now.

Okay, I can’t be the only one who finds “micro, mezzo, macro-flation attacks” really silly right?
Take away the financial jargons, we’ll be left with pokemon/digimon fights in an alternate universe
Maybe I was just expecting too much from a series for little boys :(

I have a feeling Mikuni is one of the good guys… Kimimaro will be the one who is blindsided by his own sense of justice and ends up waging an unnecessary war

At least there is MSYU and Q… they are awesome. I love their antlers and horns.

The clearly spoken English was a little odd though. I have been watching anime for well over a decade now and I rarely hear that. Usually it is the unintelligible stuff spoken, like by Jennifer in this show. Her boss, though, the subbers didn't even bother to put anything in it was so clear.

I also don’t understand how someone can be invited to the Financial District. For me, it looks like Jennifer didn’t have financial issue even before she was invited to the Financial District. And she is an investigator too. Is this a coincidence or not?
But overall this series has picked my interest. Really fun and different, I really enjoy Msyu. And George also seems to be a pretty strong asset too.
And does Mikuni really have 2 assets?

it feels like this anime will get Kurokami-ish ending, something like; Kimimaro will become rich, buys the whole Financial District and close it down or make it automated so nobody will be forced to participate ever again, then they will skip to “20 years later” he will be old, sitting in a cinfmy chair, his grandkids will be running around him, he pulls out the card and say “thanks for everything Mashu” and dies

Also, Kimimaro is really easily tricked. The logic of Mikuni on “It was all for you” fails at a certain point.

If Kimimaro’s dad was striving for his family then WHEN is the amount of money sufficient and WHEN is it just striving for your own interest?

Unless none of the people in the system can exit, Kimimaro’s dad, if he really is simply looking out for his family, would have exited the system once a sufficient amount was accrued, for example M2600900000 as is found in the book recovered by Kimimaro? If 1 M=1 yen, then that would have been 2,600,900,000 yen. Not enough for the family’s future?

Of course if
i) No one can exit (LOL)
ii) the number does not actually mean Midas money
iii) The currency conversion is much smaller
then Mikuni’s little speech much make sense

Was that the time when Kimimaro asked if he could exit (ep 2 IIRC) because i remember Masakaki did not answer him but instead told him to simply play on.

The thing against the possibility of “no exits” is why would Mikuni and Masakaki need to convince Kimimaro to play on? They could simply pull the “You’re stuck playing or die/whatever. Too bad, boohoo” on Kimimaro.

I find Mikuni interesting, I assumed he was bad in the beginning but he seems different now that we actually met him. I wonder what is up with him and Q, they almost seem to have a loving relationship, possibly him compensating for his bad childhood by having her as a daughter or a replacement for his sister. I can’t decide which. Either way it was funny watching her trying not to fall asleep.

More random thoughts and responses:
I took a number off the scale in the middle of the Financial District (FD). It’s around 7.6 Trillion JPY. Btw, since the counter is in JPY, I would assume that Midas money, at least from the Japan’s (Far East) FD is in JPY. Jennifer said that its proportional to the economic strength of its host nation. Translated in USD that’s around 95 Billion. That’s not a lot of money. Sure you can take the proportion part and imply a multiplier effect to whatever you want like 10x or 100x. But for comparison, Toyota Motors is worth around $125B and JP Morgan Chase has assets under management of $1.3T.

What does this mean? If Mikuni takes all that Midas money into Japan, hardly anyone would notice. Ticket prices on the Yamanote wouldn’t even go up 10yen (although I don’t know how much it is now). So when her IMF boss tell’s Jennifer to leave Mikuni alone, it kinda makes sense from that angle.

And now for a different angle. We all know that being bankrupt (zero balance) in the FD means you die in the real world. How about the flip side to that. If you had a lot of money, can you extend your own lifespan. Or perhaps can you extend someone else’s.

This actually would make an excellent game, maybe with Atlus making it.
Obviously good English but they need to slow down and explain how the rules/world works. Do you always go bankrupt after you lose? Is it possible for entrepreneurs to give loans? Is Masakaki a demon or something else? Art’s great even if the mooks are generic enough you know they’ll be the losers to show how strong the main characters are. I found the IMF a nice touch. At least it isn’t ‘evil Americans’ so far.